Improvement in steam water-elevators



' scription of the same, reference being had to the anvessel is of great length.

width, and of such length that when the sections are 'C5/.taten i latrut l @like CHARLES L.. STEVE-Ns vAND ALBERT A.. DE `WON, or GALESBURG,

' 1LL1N01s.

Letters Patent No. 85,868,

dated .Tanna/ry 12, 1869.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom'tt lIna/y concern Beit known that we, CHARLES L. STEVENS and AL- BERT A. BENTON, of Galesburg, in thecounty of Knox, and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Water-Elevators;-and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact denexed drawings, making part of this specification, in whch- Figure 1 is anelevation of the elevator, showing the pipe through which the steam is admitted thereto, and also the pipe through which the water is ejected there-' from.

Figure 2 is a vertical elevation of the same, showing the valve, in the bottom thereof, through which water is admitted, the deflector a in the top thereof, and the l pipe Gr, containing the valve c, through which the water is expelled om the vessel A, and by which a portion thereof is permitted to return thereto.

The object of this invention is an improvement in water-elevators for railway-stations, and for any other purposes Where it becomes necessary to elevate water to any considerable height; and

It consistsr-A j First, in the construction of tanks, made of wood, in sections, for greater convenience in placing them in wells, or other receptacles, below the surface of the earth; and

Secondly, it consists in providing a valve in the discharge-pipe, with an aperture through it, so that a portion of the water which 'has been expelled from the vessel may return thereto anrbcondense any steam that may remain therein; and l Thirdly, it consists in the arrangement of the remaining portions of the device, all of which will be fully explained hereinafter.

`'A and A show the receptacle for the water vwhich is to be elevated, which is to be constructed in sections, as clearly shown in lig. 2 of the drawings, only that there may, if necessary, be more than two such sections,which form of construction will become convenient when the These sections we prefer to make of wood, and they are to be composed of staves, say from three to six inches'in thickness, and from -two to four inches in united the vessel will be of the required length, say from ten to forty feet,more or less, which length will be determined by theI depth of the water in the well or other receptacle in which the device is placed.

These staves, after having been dressed to the form required to give the vessel the form shown in the drawings, are put together so as to form an open cylindrical tube, upon which bands or hoops are placed, as shown at d.

After being thus formed, the sections have their ends dressed off at a right angle with theirsides, so that, when placed in position, they shall form the required Alength of the receptawcle, which isl made perfectly tight at its joints, by taking care that one of the hoops shall cover such joints, into which any suitable kind of pack` .ing may be inserted, if found necessary.

After the vessel A A is thus constructed, the longitudinal bolts B B, hereafter to be described, are inserted in the metal heads, they having been previously placed -upon the ends of the vessel, and the nuts thereon being screwed down upon said heads, the whole is held firmly in position, and the tightness of the joints secured.

B B are the longitudinal bolts above lreferred to, which are constructed in the usual form, and are of suiiicient length to extend from one head of the vessel to the other, and receive upon one of their ends a nut,

which serves to confine said heads firmly to the outer ends of the sections of which the vessel is composed.

O C are the heads of the vessel, which are of metal, and of sufficient thickness to resist any strain that it may become necessaryto put upon them, the upper' i head C being faced upon its interior surface with wood,

to prevent the condensation of steam which would take E is the water-induction valve, which is placed uponv the upper or interior ysurface ofthe lower head and opens inward, so as to permit the water to enter and fill the vessel at any time when a vacuum has been formed therein.

j This valve may be of the kind known as hinged valves, or it may be of the puppet variety. or of any other suitable construction.

F is the steam-induction pipe, having in it, near to its entrance to the vessel A, a two-way cook, by which the passage of steam to the vessel is regulated', and by which, also, when -placed in the position shown in g. 2, .the steam is shut olf from the vessel by closing the communication between it and the generator, and Aat the same time .the steam which was contained in said vessel is permitted to escape into the atmosphere, by which arrangement we are enabled toreceive Water much more rapidly than we should were we compelled to wait at each elevation for the steam to be condensed within the vessel A, it requiring not more than five seconds to reiill an ordinary-sized tank after the steam has forced the preceding charge out of it.

Gr is the eduction-pipe, through which the water passes from the vessel A, which isto be of any necessary length to conduct the Water to the required height.

The diameter of said pipe will depend upon the rapidity with which it is desired to eject the water, say

end, with an enlargement, as shown in fig. 2, for the reception of a valve, which opens upward, to permit the water to escape from the vessel A.

The peculiarity of this valve, which forms one important feature of our invention, is that it has formed in it a small aperture, say from one-eighth to onefourth of an inch in diameter, so that as soon as the steam has forced one charge of' Water from the vessel, and the communication between it and the generator has been closed, a portion ofl the water in pipe G will, by its own gravity, be forced through said aperture back into the vessel A, thus quickly condensing what steam remains therein, and permitting a fresh charge of water to pass in through the valve F.

a is a deector attached to the lower end'of' the induction-pipe, for the purpose of' deflecting the steam, and causing it to strike against the wooden walls of' the vessel, upon its entrance therein, instead of being at once forced into contact with the water, by which much of' its efliciency would be destroyed.

b is the key to the cock E'above referred to.

c is the valve, which, as before stated, is placed in .the discharge-pipe G.

el shows the hoops, which surround the vessel, one of which, cl', shows -its location with reference to the joints of the sections of' the vessel. a i We regard this device as possessingr many advantages over any which have preceded it for the same purpose, in that it is constructed in sections, and consequently is much more readily transport-ed from the` workshop to the place of its destination, but more particularly because ofthe facility7 it afibrds f'or placing it in its position in the well, it being a comparatively easy matter to lower down and place iu position the sections.

Another very decided advantage arises from the fact that the vessel is constructed of Wood in all of its parts -with which the ysteam comes in contact, thus reducing the first cost, as well as the amount of` condensation of steam to a minimum, and enabling us to discharge a much larger quantity of' -water in a given length of time than can possibly be done by any elevator known to us, which last result is due to two facts: rst, the steam upon its lirst entrance to the vessel is not required to heat said vessel to nearly its own temperature, as is the case when iron vessels are used, which heating involves the consumption of' mu'ch time and the expenditure of a large amount of' steam; secondly, it is due to the f'act that no time is lost in waiting for steam to condense after the water has been expelled from the vessel, as the jet of' water caused by the perforation of' the valve brings about that result almost instantaneonsly.

Having thus described our invention,

What we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The construction of' a wooden tank in sections A A, stayed by the longitudinal rods B B, substantially as herein set forth.

2. The construction of the valve c and its chamber Gr, in eol'nbination with the tank of a water-elevator.

3. The arrangement of the two-way cock and the deflcctor (l, as specified.

In testimony whereof, wc have signedvour names to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GHAS. L. STEVENS. ALBERT A. BENTON. Witnesses S. N. Gnosis, G. STYER. 

